The VSU Spectator has been my safe haven, open door, and home away from home ever since my freshman year of college. The publication didn’t just feel like a job to me, it felt like a place I belonged. The Spectator showed me that I had the confidence to take on new challenges and responsibilities. At the beginning of my ...

My time here at the Spectator has been a dream come true. The Spectator is not only my first campus job, but it is also where I finally found my people, my family and my niche. Two years ago, I had no direction or plan for my career, and I never would have considered being part of the newspaper team ...

I am the Leading Graphics editor for the VSU Spectator, and while I am very fortunate to have worked in this office, I am going to be transferring to a different university, Kennesaw State University. The Spectator gave me a lot of opportunities to grow as an artist and develop a work ethic that I would use in a workplace ...

A second round of the CARES Act, now known as the Higher Education Relief Fund, was distributed to eligible students’ accounts on April 1. The HERF grant is $4.6 million and is meant to help students who have been financially impacted by COVID-19. Each eligible student received $100 in their student banner account automatically but can choose to apply for ...

There are numbers of VSU Alumni that, since graduating, have made their mark in the world. As current seniors graduate and move past this school they will become Alumni as well.  Kara Jones, marketing director at U.S. Press has worked with this company since she graduated from VSU in 2014. U.S. Press is a commercial printing company located in Valdosta.  ...

For the past year, The Spectator’s biggest obstacle has been COVID-19. Just like everything else in the world, as a staff we have had to adapt to changes. In-person interviews turned into virtual interviews, the news room turned into a social distanced bubble, and our stories became more complex with bigger issues than we could have ever imagined. But through ...

The Spectator won eight awards, including two first-place awards, at the Georgia College Press Association (GCPA) Better Newspaper contest held virtually on Feb. 19. The Spectator competes against 19 other newspapers including the largest colleges in the state: UGA, Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University. Notably, the Spectator won an award in all coverage categories. The staff receive ...

VSU police looked  into allegations of an attempted poisoning incident which occurred at the Oak Street Parking Deck Monday. Around 11:30 p.m. on Monday, March 1, two students were moving their cars from Oak parking deck when they noticed two people walking around. “My friend saw two sketchy people,” said one of the students, a visiting friend who said she ...

In the spring of 1963, Drewnell Thomas and Robert Pierce Jr. walked across a stage to receive their high school diplomas from Valdosta’s all-Black Pinevale High School. Then they walked right into the history books. Thomas and Pierce both graduated with honors from Pinevale, but another academic achievement managed to outshine that one: Thomas and Pierce were the first Black ...

This is a sincere “thank you” letter to professors who have truly worked tirelessly with their students over the past year to help students continue to be successful in such a stressful time period.  Last spring, students’ lives changed drastically America shut down and students were unable to return to campus. Forced to finish their last semester of school online, students were still in ...